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Seth Godin talks about the problems with trying to give customers what they want.

No one actually understands what the market wants. When you choose to make something magical instead, when you bring passion instead of calculation to your work, you’re as least as likely to get it right as the guy who is selling out.

Kent Beck, software development expert, said in a course I attended, that he often found the following to be true.

The more discussion there is about something, the less important it is. Everyone agrees about the really important ones.

Obviously, it is not always true, but in many cases it is. People can get into almost religious wars about things like which brand of sports car is the best even though most of them are really similar, and any of them would be a great car.

To properly launch this new concept, they do a 175 city world seminar tour. These seminars are free and available in most countries, so take a look, they might be coming to you too. The seminars are obviously marketing for their concept, but they might very well contain something of value for you nevertheless.

It describes very well how we might easily live our lives “unconsciously” without realizing it. We often simply live out the expectations from our friends, parents, colleagues, neighbours, and the society in large. The article then describes why and how we can make concious choices about how to live our life.

A short summary of what Steve means by “courage”, and what the article is about:

By courage I mean the ability to face down those imaginary fears and reclaim the far more powerful life that you’ve denied yourself. Fear of failure. Fear of rejection. Fear of going broke. Fear of being alone. Fear of humiliation. Fear of public speaking. Fear of being ostracized by family and friends. Fear of physical discomfort. Fear of regret. Fear of success.

Both my life and this blog have to a large degree been inspired by this article.